Core Laboratories (NYSE:CLB) Price Target Raised to $18.00

Core Laboratories (NYSE:CLB) had its price target boosted by equities research analysts at Stifel Nicolaus from $17.00 to $18.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “hold” rating on the oil and gas company’s stock. Stifel Nicolaus’ target price points to a potential upside of 4.11% from the stock’s current price.

Several other research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Bank of America reduced their target price on Core Laboratories from $17.00 to $16.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 15th. StockNews.com raised Core Laboratories from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, January 20th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and three have issued a hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $18.75.

Core Laboratories Stock Performance

Shares of CLB traded up $0.22 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $17.29. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 114,650 shares, compared to its average volume of 463,395. Core Laboratories has a one year low of $13.82 and a one year high of $27.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 1.72 and a current ratio of 2.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $810.21 million, a PE ratio of 19.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.94 and a beta of 2.40. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $16.29 and its two-hundred day moving average is $17.66.

Core Laboratories (NYSE:CLB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The oil and gas company reported $0.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.11 by $0.02. Core Laboratories had a return on equity of 15.90% and a net margin of 8.18%. The company had revenue of $129.64 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $124.47 million. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Core Laboratories will post 0.8 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Core Laboratories by 39.7% during the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 328,435 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $7,886,000 after acquiring an additional 93,354 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Core Laboratories by 25.3% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 436,459 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $10,479,000 after buying an additional 88,013 shares in the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG increased its stake in shares of Core Laboratories by 18.2% in the third quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 27,524 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $661,000 after buying an additional 4,247 shares in the last quarter. Essex Investment Management Co. LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Core Laboratories in the third quarter valued at $1,071,000. Finally, Toroso Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Core Laboratories by 6.9% in the third quarter. Toroso Investments LLC now owns 38,348 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $921,000 after buying an additional 2,480 shares in the last quarter. 97.81% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Core Laboratories

Core Laboratories Inc provides reservoir description and production enhancement services and products to the oil and gas industry in the United States, and internationally. It operates through Reservoir Description and Production Enhancement segments. The Reservoir Description segment includes the characterization of petroleum reservoir rock and reservoir fluid samples to enhance production and improve recovery of crude oil and gas from its clients' reservoirs.